Stories sometimes travel long route to newspages

Published: Thursday, January 20, 2000

(EDITOR'S NOTE In each A-J 100th Birthday special section, we will examine issues and answer questions unique to the newspaper business. This month's installment surrounds the ingredients necessary for a news story.)

By DOUG HENSLEY

Avalanche-Journal

A phone in The Avalanche-Journal newsroom rings, and an out-of-breath caller whispers the following tip: ''My neighbor's garden has a squash that looks like Elvis Presley.''

News story or not?

Every day, The A-J newsroom receives calls for possible story ideas. Some lead to genuine front-page items. Others are checked out and fail to develop. A very few are outright dismissed on lack of merit.

''We appreciate every story idea,'' said A-J Editor Randy Sanders. ''In my opinion, you can't have too much interaction with your readers, and we do rely on them for ideas and input. However, it's a physical impossibility to turn every phone call into a story.''

Most A-J reporters work in a team or ''pod'' system in which different areas, such as the criminal justice system, are covered by multiple reporters. In addition to the day-to-day duties that come with each area, reporters also work on ''enterprise'' stories, which require more time to develop and often, although not exclusively, appear in the Sunday A-J.

Back to the makings of a story, though. Once an idea or tip is received, a reporter will meet with an editor to discuss it. Usually, that leads to several phone calls to check out the validity of the information.

Some of the factors The A-J uses when determining whether something is news are proximity, overall importance to the community or the ''gee-whiz'' factor, something that would seem to evoke strong emotion in an average reader.

If the follow-up information squares with the initial tip, the reporter generally pursues the story, interviewing sources and doing necessary background work to pull the information together into a cohesive news item.

Sometimes, that means a short story, and sometimes that leads to a longer story, depending on the complexity of the issue. As is the case with any newspaper, stories range from several paragraphs of pure information to lengthy items with multiple sources, sometimes accompanied by photos and graphic elements.

Now, it doesn't always work as smoothly as one might think. Occasionally, there are times when interested parties do not want to see a certain story published, and they might lobby The A-J to hold or kill a story.

''We don't kill accurate stories,'' Sanders said. ''We receive calls almost every day from people asking us to hold certain information out of the paper, whether it's a news story or an item in the official records. There are instances where we have held a story to allow our lawyers to look it over, but we are not in the business of censoring our own reporters.''

Regardless of vested interests, though, stories, whether they are ''positive'' or ''negative'' find their way into the daily newspages.

It is the only way a newspaper can maintain the public trust as well as its integrity.